A Modest Proposal
by QueenY C
Summary: Booth and Brennan have been happily together for five years, but something has been bothering Brennan and she's about to take matters into her own hands.


**Author: QueenyC**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bones or any of the charters or locations affiliated with it. If I did, I'd be doing more with them then posting stories in fan fiction.**

**A/N: Whew! It's been a while, huh? I apologize for the long delay in getting this one-shot up. The Heartbeat-Universe stories got moved to the back-burner for a while since I've been working on my own original novel pretty diligently. I hope you guys enjoy this! Leave me a review!**

**A Modest Proposal**

Angela grinned as her best friend knocked at her doorframe before entering without invitation. She watched curiously as Brennan came to her desk and leaned rather dejectedly against the top before asking bluntly, "Do you think Booth still loves me?"

Angela stared up at her best friend for several minutes, trying to digest the completely unexpected question.

"Bren," Angela scoffed when she'd managed to find her voice, "You two have been together for five years. You have a child together. Booth loves you, Sweetie!"

Brennan chewed her lip in thought. "I just wonder if maybe he...he isn't getting tired of me or something."

Angela felt her jaw hit somewhere about her knees. Over the past five years her family and her best friend's had always been very intermingled. Brennan and Booth had been a part of Angela and Hodgins' wedding. They'd been present at the birth of their first child, Temperance Lilian, and their second, Tatiana Faith. They'd helped to push through the adoption of Ayden and Jude. They'd spent Christmases and summer vacations together. They'd worked, eaten, laughed and cried through five blissful years as some sort of blended family. Never had she seen either component of the dynamic duo falter, seem less in love, less committed to one another. Had she missed something?

"What would make you think that, Bren. Has he said something?"

Brennan shook her head and bit her lip again. "Nothing like that. As far as I can tell we are exactly what we've always been: a committed couple."

"So...why the questioning, Sweetie?"

Brennan frowned deeper than ever and with much less than her usual grace, flopped into the chair across from Angela's desk. "He hasn't asked me," she huffed.

"Asked what, Bren," Angela cried, feeling, as usual with her best friend, like she was having to dig answers out of her. For a woman who valued truth, she seemed to have no qualms about being vague.

"To marry him, Ange," Brennan whined, turning to her friend with deep, sad eyes.

It was only the despondency of Brennan's tone that kept Angela from giggling as she stood up and wrapped an arm around her best friend with an, "Oh, Sweetie, you're adorably hopeless."

"This is not a funny matter, Ange," Brennan said seriously, staring at her friend like she'd grown extra appendages. "Booth may have fallen out of love with me."

"I'm certain that isn't the case, Bren. You two are incredible together. Even all this time later, when you look at each other you light up a room."

"That is not logically possible, Ange," Brennan lectured. "And if you're right, why hasn't he asked me?"

Angela rolled her eyes. "Oh, gee, Bren, I dunno, maybe because you've always made it abundantly clear that you don't want to be married."

"I _didn't_," Brennan corrected, her face furrowing in realization. "Surely he doesn't think I still feel that way. Not after Joy and the life we have together. It isn't logical to think that my preferences are what they used to be."

"Well, Sweetie," Angela smirked, "You're the logical one. Booth goes by heart and his heart is probably telling him that he'll take you however he can, even if it means no ring and no wedding."

"But..." Brennan moaned, seeming suddenly much more like the little girl than the world-renowned scientist, "But I _want_ to marry Booth."

**~BB~**

Booth had noticed in the past few weeks that Brennan wasn't her usual self. She was still all-in at work, of course, but it was little things.

Sometimes when they were watching TV he'd look over at her and find that she was focused on some distant part of the wall, staring intently like she was puzzling out some very troubling problems. One morning he'd come down the stairs and sworn he heard her sobbing. By the time he'd cleared the hallway at record pace she'd been at the sink washing dishes, normal as you please.

But there were other things too. At night, when he made love to her, there was something almost desperate in her eyes, pleading with him not to let her go, begging him for something, he just couldn't figure out what. Something was definitely wrong with the love of his life and he'd had just about enough of trying to guess what.

Tonight, he'd decided, he was going to the source.

Angela picked up on the third ring with a sunny, "You've reached the chaos of the Hodgins household, how can I help you?"

In the background Booth could hear Ayden and Jude screaming and he chuckled, "Hey, it's Booth."

"Well, hey there, Studly, how ya been? We haven't seen you in at least three days," she teased.

"Yeah," Booth replied with a grin. "I took Parker camping this weekend. He's thirteen now so I take any chance I get when he feels like he can be seen with me in public."

Angela laughed appreciatively. "Be thankful, A and Jude are only six and they've already decided that parents are only cool in certain situations."

Booth grinned, thinking about the twin boys the Hodgins had adopted after a particularly nasty case a few years ago left them orphaned. Fate couldn't have been kinder to the boys who had instantly become close friends with his own little girl, just a year their junior. "Yeah," he agreed. "Thank God, Joy's a Daddy's Girl. Listen, Ange," he added, his tone going serious. "As much as I love catching up, this is actually rather important."

"You've noticed the Bren Despondency thing, huh?"

"How on earth did you know I was gonna go there?"

"Because she's been moping for the better part of two weeks and you're an observant boyfriend. If you wanna know what's up, I'd love to tell you, but I've been sworn to a BFF secrecy pact. You're gonna have to do your own investigation."

"Damn," Booth sighed, scrubbing a hand over his face. He knew he was running out of time to collect clues when he heard Joy's giggles echo from upstairs. Brennan had finished giving their daughter her bath.

"Catch me, Mommy," Joy squealed before he heard her little feet pounding down the upstairs hall.

"Joy, don't run, you're all wet and could slip and injure yourself," Brennan said in exasperation but Booth could hear the trace of amusement in her voice.

"What _can_ you tell me, Ange," Booth asked into the phone quietly.

He heard his girlfriend's best friend sigh and could almost picture her chewing her lip, weighing the pros and cons of betraying Brennan's trust. "You should know, it's not really a bad thing. Bren is just convinced that it is. She'll figure it out. She just needs time."

"What does she have to figure out that I can't know about, Ange?"

"It's complicated, Booth."

"It always is," he sighed.

"She's a complicated woman," Angela supplied completely unhelpfully. "I love you G-Man, it'll be okay."

"A hint, Ange, come on. You know I can't just put this out of my head."

"Fine. Rings."

"What?"

"That's your hint: rings. Good luck."

Through the phone he heard Ayden shouting for her attention before she signed off, a smile still heavy in her voice.

_Rings_, Booth thought, _well that wasn't very helpful at all._

**_~BB~_**

Sweets was on his way up to the apartment he shared with his fiance', Daisy when his phone rang with a very familiar number. He grinned, passing Daisy the key to the house and motioning for her to go ahead.

"Sweets," he answered once he thought he had some relative privacy.

"I need your help," Dr. Brennan's voice said without preamble in her usual way.

"Is everything okay," Sweets asked, surprised by the urgency in his favorite patient's voice. "Booth, the kids?"

"No, no, their fine. It's just, well, I find myself in a situation which requires the insight of your soft science expertise."

Sweets tried not to be flattered at her back-handed compliment. "Okay, shoot."

"What?"

"I mean, go ahead, tell me what's up."

Brennan sighed in the line, long and drawn and disturbed. "I'm not married," she said after a moment.

"Wh-what?" Sweets was so surprised by her confession that he misstepped on his way back down the stairs and had to grab on to the railing to remain upright.

By the time he'd righted himself and brought the phone up to his ear, Brennan was calling him. "Sweets, hello, are you still there?"

"Yeah, sorry, tripped...so, uh, you're not married," he prompted.

He could almost hear Brennan's frown. "I assure you, Sweets, that despite the frequent teasing you receive from Booth and I, we consider you a friend and would've mailed you an invitation in the case of our intended nuptials."

Sweets barely withheld his chuckle at her awkward attempt to reassure him. "That's very thoughtful of you, Dr. Brennan, but what I meant was...why are you telling me you're not married."

"Oh, well..." she went uncharacteristically hesitant, "I just...you know, thought I would be by now."

"Married?"

"Obviously."

"I'm sorry, it's just...well, I'm a little surprised is all," Sweets said, which was really the understatement of the year. His head was spinning with the unexpected nature of this conversation and all the meanings behind it. For a woman who loathed psychology, Brennan sure did make an interesting study.

"Because of my desire to be married," She asked and he could hear the sadness in her voice, almost like blossoming tears. "Why is everyone so shocked by that? I am not a robot, I feel things, I do, it's just—"

"Dr. Brennan," Sweets interrupted gently, his mind whirling to thoughts of what Booth would do to him if he ever found out Sweets had made her cry. "I assure you, nobody thinks you're a robot. It's just that in the past you've always been pretty clear about your opinion of marriage as an archaic ritual—"

"—Which perpetuates the ideals of women as property," she finished for him. "The scientist in me still thinks that," Brennan clarified, bringing a smile back to Sweets' face. "But...Booth has a tendency to bring out the _woman_ in me and what she wants is a wedding and a ring and promise."

Sweets grinned, his heart light with the happiness of both of his closest friends. "Dr. Brennan, I think that's great."

She scoffed into the phone. "No it isn't. Booth has not _asked_ me to marry him! Angela believes he will not do so because I have made my beliefs on the subject so clear in the past."

Sweets frowned. "Forgive me, Dr. Brennan, but since when have you ever waited for Booth to do something? If you want to marry him, why don't you just propose?"

The line went silent for several moments. "But Booth has always been clear that he would like to make the proposal. Something about rings and knees and romantic settings which I don't really understand."

Sweets chuckled. "Dr. Brennan, Booth wouldn't care if you beat him over the head and drug him to the wedding, he'd be happy to marry you. I promise you that."

"So...so you think I should just ask him?"

"No time like the present, right?"

She went quiet again for a moment and he knew that her hyper-rational brain was already coming up with a scenario. "Thank you, Sweets," she finally said after a moment. "You really are a great friend."

"As are you, Dr. Brennan," Sweets acknowledged. "Just make sure I get an invitation and we'll call it even."

**~BB~**

Brennan hadn't been nervous in a long time but tonight she was on what Booth would call 'tacks and needles,' jumpy and agitated in a way that she knew Booth was catching on to. He wasn't the best FBI agent in D.C. for nothing.

With a little babysitting help from Angela, who was the only person besides Sweets aware of her little plan for the night, she'd ensured that she and Booth had their first evening out alone in several months. They'd gone out to a fancy dinner and dancing and she had to admit that, as much as she adored her little girl, it was nice to trade in her 'mom jeans' for a cocktail dress for the evening.

But now they were on their way home and she was getting nervous. Her plan had seemed so romantic and utterly appropriate last week when she'd thought it up. Why did she feel so shaky now? Why was her stomach in knots?

"Baby, I've tried to let you deal with whatever has been bothering you on your own," Booth said in the driver's seat, cutting into her thoughts abruptly. "But you're killing me," he sighed, reaching across the console to take her hand and give it a reassuring squeeze. "What's going on in that genius brain of yours?"

Brennan sighed, turning to meet the eyes of the man she loved. They were twin pools of loving concern which, oddly, lifted a bit of the burden on her chest. "Can we go to our spot," she asked quietly.

Booth nodded, not even bothering to ask which 'their spot' she might be referring to, and hit his blinker before guiding their vehicle in a new direction.

By the time they reached the mall, it was well past 11 and not a soul was in sight. Hand-in-hand, they walked in silence to the reflecting pool, gazing down at the man-made marvel.

"Booth," Brennan began after a deep breath, trying to remember the speech she'd planned, "I know I haven't always been very good at showing it, but I hope you know that I love you."

"Of course," Booth nodded, turning to face her, cupping her cheeks with his warm, rough hands.

"I've had a hard past," she began, trying to school her thoughts. "You might be the only one who has ever seen and understood all the scars it gave me. A background like that, it makes you careful, it makes you wary, it makes you build up walls so that no one can hurt you."

"But you've come so far, Baby," Booth told her proudly.

She shook her head, feeling a lump grow in her throat and tears blossom at the corners of her eyes, "I've never been very good at having an open-heart, but I like to think that you and Joy have made me better, healed some wounds I was sure would never go away."

Booth nodded, words seeming to fail him as he continued to stroke her cheek gently and press the occasional kiss to her forehead, listening intently but with confusion still in his eyes.

Brennan tried to regroup. She needed to get to her point before she lost the ability to speak. "What...what I'm trying to say," she choked, "Is that...well, everything changes, right? Entropy pulls everything apart at a subatomic level and it allows for changes...necessary changes."

"Baby, I don't..." Booth sighed, shaking his head, "I don't know what you're trying to tell me."

"I'm saying that you've changed me, Booth," Brennan whispered softly as tears began to fall down her cheeks in earnest, pressing her hands against his chest and playing absently with the button-holes of his coat. "You've made me a better person, a more full person. And I'd be," a little sob tore from her throat, "I'd be honored if you would spend the rest of your life trying to make me whole." Tears dripping down her face in earnest now, she forced herself to look up and catch his watery brown eyes. "Marry me, Seeley Booth. Complete me."

"Bones," he murmured, his voice somewhere between a gasp and a sigh. He leaned down to close the space between them and pressed a passionate kiss to her lips. Tears continued to fall down their faces, mingling and becoming one stream.

After several moments, Booth pulled away, his hands once again framing her face, brushing away tears with his gentle touch. "I never would've imagined—"

"Did I do it okay," Brennan asked, cutting him off, suddenly afraid that Sweets had been wrong, that she should've waited for him to ask her. "Sweets assured me that you wouldn't be offended and I...I just thought—"

This time he cut _her_ off, pressing another kiss to her lips to achieve silence before holding up a finger and digging into his pocket. "You and I," He told her softly, "Have always been on the same page, Bones." And miraculously, he revealed a ring box. "I bought this years ago. The moment I saw it, I knew it was meant for you, but I wanted to be sure. I wanted you to be ready. So I held on to it, hid it in the bottom of my sock drawer. Tonight, when I was getting ready, I got this urge to pull it out again and take it with me. Gut instincts, right?"

"They've always been good," Brennan said with a nod.

"Yeah," Booth agreed, prying open the box to show her an elegant white-gold band with twin dolphins surrounding a round diamond setting.

"It's beautiful," she whispered, the often hidden girlish side of her leaping up in triumph and locking the scientist into the furthest part of her mind. "Booth, it's perfect."

"Like you," He said, reaching for her hand and sliding the ring onto her finger. "I'd be honored to marry you, Temperance Brennan. To have you as my partner in life is the greatest gift you could ever give me."

"So," Brennan laughed softly, gazing down at her ring and then up at his face. "That's a yes, then?"

"Definitely," Booth nodded before pulling her back into a much more heated kiss. "Definitely."


End file.
